Surveillance, Power Plays, and Digital Minds

In this edition of Expl(ai)ned, a monthly newsletter by The New AI Project, explore DeepSeek’s market-upending release, President Trump’s second-term approach to regulation, and AI in the Super Bowl.  In Taming AI, a column about ethics, policies, and regulation, examine the emerging “tech oligarchy” and the evolving relationship between the tech industry and U.S. politics. Tech Titans looks back on the market-shaking debut of China’s DeepSeek, and AI at Work covers the ongoing debate over AI’s role in workplace communication. In Research Revelations, explore the growing importance of reasoning models and their implications for the future of artificial intelligence. Stay informed with The New AI Project’s in-depth analysis of how AI is shaping industries, policy, and global competition on their LinkedIn page.

If you’re a fan of podcasts, The New AI Project team utilized NotebookLM, an exciting AI product from Google, to produce an in-depth podcast episode that covers everything they’ve written this month. NotebookLM can take up to 50 text inputs and generate a realistic conversation between two virtual podcast “hosts” that concisely covers the inputted material.  Listen below for a wide-ranging conversation on all five articles they published this month!

The New AI is sponsored on ThinkND by the Technology and Digital Studies Program in the College of Arts & Letters.  This program collaborates with the Computer Science and Engineering Department and other departments around the University to offer the Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, the Minor in Data Science, and the Idzik Computing & Digital Technologies Minor.

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